Rahm Emmanuel is known as a fighter. He is the kind of man who either has friends or enemies. You can't be neutral to him. He remembers his enemies, and makes lists. Once you get on his bad side, there's little hope of ever getting back on his good side. In accepting the position as chief of staff, Rahm will have to step down as a U.S. representative from Illinois. This was a tough decision for him, because he had the potential to work his way up to the speaker of the House, which of course means that he would have been third in line for the presidency.
Anyway, the implications of this are simple. Obama's selection of Rahm Emmanuel as his chief of staff means that he is anticipating a battle, and he will do anything to win. The battle is for his stances and whatever he believes is right. Some would say that he wants to "crush the Republican party." I don't know if I would go that far. This selection allows Obama to maintain his centrist public persona while Mr. Emmanuel does the dirty work. It would be good to look at this from a Good Cop/Bad Cop perspective. Obama will be the friendly, caring, peacemaker, while Emmanuel will be the man behind the scenes who is unrelenting in his brutality.
I wouldn't say that Obama is trying to be two-faced here. If I were president, I would want a man like Emmanuel on my side. However, Mr. Emmanuel will be pushing hard for Omaba's stances, and having him on Obama's side could potentially be dangerous. Pray for unity in Washington, because this has the potential to be dirty and divisive.
Another thing to keep an eye on is Emmanuel's strong Jewish background. Arabs and Palestinians are not too pleased with Obama's choice here because they think that he will be highly influenced by Emmanuel's position on the nation of Israel. We'll just have to wait and see how this affects the constant struggle in the Middle East, but it is definitely something worth keeping an eye on.
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